Dreamer
by Fate VII
Summary: (for rain-streaked) Ryou can't sleep. Therefore, neither can Bakura. Late-night discussions, personal djinns, and strange wishes that will never come true...or will they?


For rain-streaked. I'm sorry it took so long! I'm sorryyyyy!

Disclaimer: not mine. plotbunny © rain-streaked. oo, © sign.

* * *

_they say..._

_...nothing, no hypnotist, no drug, nothing can make the body do something it doesn't want to do. _

_the issue lies mainly when two people are animating the same body. _

_then one has a serious conflict of interests._

* * *

**::dreamer::**

* * *

_I told you not to drink any caffeine!_

Ryou sighed and stretched one hand out in front of his face. "I didn't," he said simply.

_Or eat. Or snort, shoot up, or otherwise take into your body! I need this thing to work, dammit!_

The fingers rippled. "Hm."

_Your mind is _racing._ That's not healthy. It can't be healthy._

"When did you become so interested in my well-being?" Ryou inquired of the ceiling. "Usually whatever I do doesn't matter."

_You haven't slept in three days. That's not normal._

"Your call on what is and is not normal is, as always, respected."

_Shut up!_ Bakura raged from somewhere deep inside his mind. _I'm sharing this godforsaken lump of flesh too, you idiot! You die, I die! And if you don't sleep, _I_ don't sleep! Are you _trying_ to tire me out?_

"You can sleep fine without me," Ryou retorted dully.

_Not when your mind's working like this!_

"Ah. So you can only sleep during school, when I'm just about comatose."

_Right._

"Right," Ryou continued skeptically.

_Shut up and go to sleep!_

"I can't."

_You can't even go to sleep? Ah, gods, you're _worthless!_ Don't you have any willpower?_

"Well, you've done an excellent job of decimating it."

_What the hell's that supposed to mean?_

"I vaguely want something, and you go out of your way to slaughter anything and everything that might even remotely stop you from getting it for me. One tends to stop trying after that sort of thing happens."

_Oh, please. You know you want it. Everything you could ever dream of having laid at your feet...why say no?_

"Why, indeed?" Ryou mused. "Especially since you don't ask my permission to take my body out on raids of wherever you feel like going."

_I don't need to._

"No, you don't..."

_Then why are you complaining so damn much?_ Bakura sighed impatiently. _The things I put up with..._

"Martyrdom does _not_ become you," Ryou said sharply. "You put up with _nothing._ Not compared to me."

_Martyrdom doesn't suit you either,_ Bakura shot back. _And you're the one who houses me._

"Hm. Quite true." Ryou slid his fingers along his chest, tracing a circle of scars around a ring of gold. "But you're the one who lets me live the way I want to live. You're the one who humors my every wish, you're the one who spills blood to save me, and you're the one who seems to hate me the most. Isn't it funny?"

A very pointed silence from somewhere inside him told him that Bakura did not find this amusing in the slightest.

"Please don't sulk. Sulking makes me nervous, because then you do scary things." Ryou rolled his eyes at the ceiling and waited.

_Like what?_

"Oh, for the love of God, you're in my mind. Just read it already!" Ryou burst out impatiently. He rolled over and savagely punched the pillow in front of him. "Not like there's anything else to do at two in the morning, is there?" He threw the pillow into the wall, then dropped his head onto his arms and let out a long breath, waiting for the reaction.

_Ah, gods, I just don't understand you sometimes!_ Bakura snapped. _You don't understand! You just don't...you don't _get_ it. It's been ages, and you don't get it!_

"You're freaking _old_," Ryou pointed out, his voice muffled by his position. "I find your impatience really hilarious."

_There you go again! You don't take me seriously!_

"And you don't treat me like a human being. I think it's fair."

_You're not human, idiot. No human would be hosting me. I think that's fair too. _

"Thanks for the reminder," Ryou said with a groan. He propped himself up on his elbows, grabbed another pillow, and flung that one at the wall too.

_Why do you want to be human?_ Bakura asked. _You want to get rid of me that much, don't you? Or is it just that you want to have friends again? You want to be able to get into a relationship without me in the way? You don't want me, do you?_

"I have you," Ryou whispered.

_But all you want most is to get rid of me._

"You grant all my wishes," Ryou pointed out. "Do you do that on purpose? Are you trying to make me into something without the ability to fend for myself without you? Why do you want me to be so dependent on you, anyway?"

There was a moment of tangible uncertainty. _You're an idiot,_ Bakura finally divulged. _There's your secret. I'm just looking out for myself._

"If you grant wishes, why don't you grant the one I want most?"

_I could put you to sleep, if you wanted._

"That's not what I want most. That's what _you_ want most right now. Speaking of that, why don't you just _do_ it?"

_Because you didn't ask._

"I never ask for anything that you give to me. Besides, are you pretending you never do anything to me of your own free will?" Ryou essayed. "Why are you getting all polite now?"

_Shut up!_

"Right then." Ryou exhaled and rolled over again to stare at the ceiling. "Why do people stare at ceilings, do you think?"

_What...the...hell?_

"Ceilings. Why do people stare at them? Is there something fascinating about objects that are roughly five feet above their heads?"Ryou inquired.

_You know, you just distanced yourself from humankind. I'm very proud._

"I think it's a little like the obsession one has with darkness and evil. It's right there, just beyond your grasp. If you wish a little, then you have it. But you have to wish the _right_ wish, or you're completely screwed."

_Are you saying what I think you're saying?_

"Read my mind and find out," Ryou said gently.

_That's not what I want to hear,_ Bakura grumbled.

"You've conditioned me to be nothing less," Ryou pointed out. "Shy and pale and afraid of anything that moves, with blood on my shoes and my hands and the ability to break a full-grown human being to slobbering nothing in seconds. You're making me your machine."

_Do you...do you ever wonder what you're making me?_

"I'm not making you into anything," Ryou replied.

_That's sort of the point._

"What do you want from me?" Ryou asked. "You hint and insinuate and control, but you never outright tell me to do anything."

_I tell you to shut up. A lot,_ Bakura amended.

"I mean aside from all that. You seem to want us to be interdependent – I control you, you control me – but that can't be right."

_Why not?_

Ryou laughed. "You, relinquishing control of who you are to someone else?"

_Hn. You do it all the time._

"But I'm still me. I'm always still me, even though people try and make me something else," Ryou said fiercely.

_And why is that?_

"Because of you, obviously. I'm me, because you exist."

_And you think it can't go both ways? You get stupid without sleep._

"You're talking about sleep again," Ryou observed. "Why?"

_I spend all my time in a dream world,_ Bakura said vaguely. _While you're awake, it's enough to drive me mad. When you're asleep...I can deal with your thoughts._

"I don't know anything about you sometimes," Ryou mused.

_No...no, you don't,_ Bakura replied. _Why don't you like to sleep?_

"It's not that I don't like it so much as I just can't manage it. My mind...after a little while, it just snaps. The more you control my body or exhaust me, the better I sleep. The less you do to me, the less I sleep. Curious, don't you think?"

_Is that an invitation?_

"No!" Ryou sat up quickly, both hands pressed to his head. "Don't!"

_Don't you want sleep? That's a quick way to do it. You just said it was,_ Bakura said, sounding injured.

Ryou sighed. "I suppose I should have known better. You do tend to take the most violent ways of fulfilling what I say."

_It's what I do._

"Yes...yes, it is," Ryou agreed dreamily, propping his head on his hands. "You're just like my personal djinn. I think you should wear a big sign that says "BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR" or something."

_I don't grant _anyone's_ wishes. I grant yours, and only because I owe you. Never forget that._

"And yet, you still don't grant my greatest wish..." Ryou said vaguely. "Funny, that."

_What are you...?_

"You know, when you put me out so you can go do whatever it is you do with my body, I have the same dream. Always that one dream." Ryou smiled vaguely at the ceiling as he flopped back onto the bed. "I dream you're real..."

There was a long moment of silence.

_Is that a wish?_

Ryou smiled.

* * *

_they say..._

_...nothing, no hypnotist, no drug, nothing can make the body do something it doesn't want to do. _

_however, many instances of such actions _

_are attributed to _

_subconscious desires._

* * *

Ra! Please review. 


End file.
